By Jonathan O’Connell, Washington Post – The District imposed some of the nation’s toughest standards for green construction in 2006, many of them to take effect in 2012.
But developers didn’t need a deadline to get started.
Many are incorporating energy-saving designs into their projects, hoping to appeal to the federal government as it pushes new standards and holds out the promise of millions of square feet of leases. As a result, the District is now a national leader when it comes to the greening of its building stock. The city has the second-largest number of buildings rated under the federal government’s Energy Star rating system, with 114. It is second nationally in square footage of green roofs, with around 800,000 square feet and another 500,000 planned for next spring. And the city has 179 LEED-certified buildings, as judged by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system for rating buildings by their ability to conserve energy, water and building materials, second only to Chicago.
The trend is not confined to the District; according to data released by the Metropolitan Council of Governments last week, there are now 22.9 million square feet of LEED-certified space in the region, and nearly 80 projects were certified in 2009 alone, more than double the number in the previous year and triple that of 2007. Read the full story here.
